As for your comment about the first paragraph, what sense is there in thinking that the fires and smoke, etc. of hell will go on eternally...even though there will not be any thing or any soul in hell for most of that eternity or any purpose behind continuing to have a hell?
How else can you describe the absence of God when God is everywhere? (division?)
God has to be there (Jesus was and had to be there) and God is a consuming fire. There are life giving 'waters' in Heaven and a 'lake' of fire for hell and for death, im sure the amount of sin in this world would accumulate endless smoke to continually rise up from a 'bottomless' pit.
Time is actually an absence of eternity, mortality is the absence of immortality, our minds cannot possibly fathom such concepts.
We are in a fallen state raised into immortality and perfection and are merely seeing through a glass darkly, nevermind proper word use among The proper Word, words are the tongues most dangerous and potent form of man weaponry and you know it.
'Suffer the ultimate' has been around since forever and was used by the devil and false profits to forsake mankind into a zoroastrian babylonian false system of superstitious 'fear' worship. Hell should not be the reason for the season, God loves all and wills all to be saved and favors no man (No predestinationalism ).
Universalism? So be it you bet.. according to God ALL should be saved but you know... 'free will' and all, I believe however that given enough time with God... ALL things are possible.
So to take an evidently symbolic phrase such as "the smoke of their torment forever ascending" to mean "the everlasting smoke created from constant regenerated skin tissue over Gods eternal torture flames constantly billow upward into the stationary abode of saints who rejoice with loved ones while constantly breathing in the endless fumes of the crying and helpless but 'dead' bodies below" -thats not what the bible says but I guarantee that you wont argue against this for its what you have always been taught.
Death in sin is symbolic, alive and dead is a physical oxymoron but spiritually symbolic, but an 'afterlife living death' in perpetual torment' is acceptable to teach our kids today with no biblical support.
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